"It was an easy decision for me - I didn't see it as a negative thing - I never have. Instead I viewed it as an opportunity to enhance my chances of survival. I had two small children who needed a mother. Nothing else mattered," she told Independent.ie of her choice to reduce her risk of developing cancer to five percent.

However, Emma was diagnosed with cancer for the tenth time last October and she found the months that followed to be "excruciating".

"It was nauseating and excruciating, but for me the draining exhaustion it caused was the worst part because it meant I was very limited with what I could do. Also the nerve-blocker medicine I was on meant I was woozy and found it hard to write. Not a fun time in my life, it's safe to say," she told the Sunday Independent in July.

"It was exhausting and for the first time in ten years, it meant I was totally flummoxed by my cancer. Up until that point, I had always managed to keep it in the background where it belongs."